The risk posed by vendors, suppliers, and partners has become one of the most pressing challenges for today’s organisations. Boards and regulators alike are demanding greater visibility into how third-party risks are managed, as supply chain disruptions, cybersecurity threats, and ESG requirements reshape expectations. Vendor risk management (VRM) is no longer just an operational task: it is a strategic priority.
Against this backdrop, independent research from Gartner® helps organisations understand the evolving third-party risk management (TPRM) technology landscape. In its Market Guide for Third-Party Risk Management Technology Solutions, Gartner notes:
“Organizations worldwide are facing intense pressure to meet new and evolving regulatory requirements related to third- and fourth-party risk. Regulators and stakeholders are increasingly interested in how organizations effectively manage their third-party risk activities.”
Protecht is proud to be recognised as a Representative Vendor in this Gartner Market Guide. We believe this reflects the strength of our integrated enterprise risk management (ERM) platform and its vendor risk management capabilities.
Independent insights into TPRM
According to Gartner:
“Organizations utilize multiple technology platforms to address third-party risk domains because no single solution supports all use cases or domains.”
Gartner also notes that:
“many TPRM technology providers continue to invest in integrated cross-functional risk-management capabilities, allowing clients and customers to manage their third-party risk domains across multiple business functions and numerous stakeholders.”
We believe this highlights both the challenge of fragmentation and the growing trend towards integration, bringing vendor risk management closer to broader GRC and ERM processes.
It’s important to note that Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organisation and should not be construed as statements of fact.
The challenge: Fragmentation in vendor risk management
As Gartner observes:
“Organizations utilize multiple technology platforms to address third-party risk domains because no single solution supports all use cases or domains.”
At the same time, Gartner also highlights that:
“Following persistent cyberattacks, trade compliance complexity, a challenging geopolitical landscape and continued pressure to meet new regulatory requirements, regulators and boards are increasingly interested in how third-party risk is effectively managed.”
We believe this combination of internal fragmentation and external pressure creates a critical gap for many organisations. Manual processes, duplicated effort, and inconsistent reporting leave businesses exposed to risks that may go unnoticed until it is too late.
Protecht’s approach to vendor risk management
Protecht addresses these challenges with an integrated approach. Our Vendor Risk Management (VRM) solution is part of the Protecht ERM platform, meaning it is not siloed but directly linked to enterprise risk, compliance, resilience, and cyber functions.
We believe the key benefits of Protecht’s VRM module include:
- Unified platform: Manage vendor risks in the same place as your wider risk, compliance, and resilience activities.
- Lifecycle oversight: Streamline onboarding, due diligence, assessments, ongoing monitoring, and reporting across the full vendor relationship lifecycle.
- Cross-domain linkages: Map vendor risks to related risks, controls, obligations, incidents, and resilience dependencies, creating a single source of truth.
- Real-time insights: Leverage dashboards, heat maps, and analytics to provide clear, board-ready reporting and continuous oversight.
By embedding VRM within a broader ERM framework, Protecht helps organisations reduce fragmentation and deliver the consistent visibility demanded by regulators and boards.
AI and the future of vendor risk management
The Gartner Market Guide highlights that many vendors are beginning to incorporate artificial intelligence and automation into TPRM platforms:
“Many vendors are incorporating machine learning and AI to support automated assessment and analysis, and refine future recommendations and impact analysis with appropriate disclosures and human review. Gartner believes this approach will be a competitive differentiator, as TPRM is both data and labor intensive.
Protecht is already innovating in this space with Cognita, our embedded AI assistant. We believe Cognita enhances vendor risk management by:
- Automating routine tasks, such as incident logging and follow-up
- Providing intelligent, context-aware guidance directly in workflows
- Supporting real-time decision-making with embedded insights
We see AI not as a replacement for risk professionals, but as a way to enhance capacity, improve consistency, and embed risk culture across the organisation.
Practical tools and resources
In addition to platform capabilities, Protecht provides resources to help organisations benchmark and improve their programs. One example is the Vendor Risk Management Maturity Checklist, an interactive, Excel-based tool designed to help teams assess program maturity, identify gaps, and prioritise next steps.
We also provide webinars, product tours, and detailed guides to help organisations translate strategy into practical action. This combination of technology and thought leadership reflects our commitment to making vendor risk management more proactive, integrated, and sustainable.
Conclusions and next steps for your organisation
We believe third-party risk is no longer optional, it is central to business resilience, compliance, and governance. Organisations are under increasing regulatory and stakeholder pressure to manage these risks effectively. Yet many programs remain fragmented, reliant on disconnected tools and manual processes.
Protecht is proud to be recognised as a Representative Vendor in the Gartner Market Guide for Third-Party Risk Management Technology Solutions. We believe this reflects our commitment to delivering an integrated, real-time, and future-focused approach to vendor risk management.
Ready to see integrated vendor risk management in action? Request a demo of Protecht ERM and discover how you can reduce fragmentation, strengthen oversight, and build resilience:
Disclaimers
Gartner, Market Guide for Third-Party Risk Management Technology Solutions, Antonia Donaldson, Luke Ellery, John Klapmust, Oscar Isaka, Alicia Booker-Carney, Dawn Singer, Martin Shreffler, Joanne Spencer, Lynn Stang, 5 May 2025.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organisation and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.